Keys To Cooperation Tribe Gives Sheriff’S Department New Car To Celebrate Working Relationship

When a helicopter crashed Tuesday on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, both tribal police and Benewah County deputies responded.

No one asked whether the crash was on tribal land.

“That’s just so typical of the cooperation,” said Sheriff Joe Blackburn. “It’s the same with search and rescue, vehicle accidents, drug raids.”

To celebrate that close working relationship - plus head off the kind of local government clashes plaguing other reservations - tribal officials gave the county a new $26,000 patrol car on Wednesday.

“I’ll present you with the keys on one condition - that I never have to ride in the back of that car,” tribal chairman Ernie Stensgar quipped to County Commissioner Dave Johnson.

“We appreciate what the tribe is doing in collaboration with Benewah County,” responded Johnson.

The tribe feels obliged to look out after the community, both Indian and non-Indian, Stensgar said. Now that the Coeur d’Alenes can afford to help, thanks to an infusion of casino dollars, it is doing so. In the last two years it has given nearly half a million dollars to public schools. Stensgar has spoken of finding a way to help the local fire department, too.

“We are going to continue,” he said. “This is just a first step.”

After the ceremony, Blackburn said he expects to get a new car every year.

Tribal members have watched warily as neighboring Nez Perce Indians have faced an organized effort to challenge their sovereignty. Its members include towns, counties, school districts.

The Coeur d’Alenes are also aware of resentment over the fact that Indians don’t pay property taxes that support local governments.

“Our idea is to be a showcase for the rest of America for how a tribe can work with … its neighbors,” said Stensgar.

Tribal council member Chuck Matheson said the tribe hopes to develop a cooperative relationship with Kootenai County, as well.

“Maybe some of the other reservations - the Nez Perce, the Shoshone-Bannock in southeastern Idaho - maybe we can set an example for the tribes down there.”

Blackburn is apparently the first Idaho sheriff to cross-deputize tribal police officers, a move that he said effectively doubled both forces. However, commissioners have lingering concerns that arrangement exposes the county to additional liability. A meeting of lawyers and insurance agents is scheduled for today to try to resolve those worries, Blackburn said.

Wednesday’s gift of the 1999 Ford Crown Victoria will help Blackburn’s effort to update the sheriff’s department’s fleet. After he got the keys from commissioner Johnson, the sheriff passed them along to Deputy Craig Couture, who will be driving the car. Coincidentally, Couture is a member of Montana’s Salish and Kootenai Confederated Tribes.

Blackburn’s deputies helped fill the tribal council chambers, as did tribal police Chief Harold Scott and his officers.